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First Annual Eeport of the Massachusetts 

 State Department of Agriculture. 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER FOR THE TEAR 1918. 



To the Senate and Home of Representatives of the Commonwealth of 



Massachusetts. 



If the question were asked as to the most important point 

 outstanding in the agriculture of the world during the past 

 year, the general opinion would probably be expressed in one 

 very short word, namely, "labor," while a very close second 

 would be "transportation," the latter being responsible for a 

 situation which has made starvation in some parts of the world, 

 while in other sections food has been so abundant that it has 

 been impossible to sell it. These two very important questions 

 to a great degree determine the feeding of the world, although 

 far too often the question of the food supply is expressed in 

 production. Production is impossible without labor. Supply 

 is impossible without transportation. From a world-wide stand- 

 point agriculture has rather settled itself around the question of 

 transportation, although production has been stimulated to a 

 large degree in sections where it was possible to utilize the 

 products. The great countries have practically had to adopt 

 systems of rationing their people, not so much because of a 

 world-wide shortage of food, but largely because this food could 

 not be brought to them. In some cases where a country has 

 been very largely non-productive this country has had to 

 become as near self-supporting as possible. England is a good 

 example of this, having increased her food production from 20 

 to 80 per cent of her needs. 



The time seems to have come when the nations of the world 

 will consider their future as much from the angle of food supply 

 as from any other point. 



